I'm trying to remain hopeful Martha Coakley will win the election next Tuesday, but that is difficult to do when listening to radio talk shows. I'm not talking about the right wing talk shows, I'm talking about the respected middle-of-the-road shows on WBZ-AM radio in Boston. My god, there is so much anger out there...

Hmmm, could it be Barack Obama and the Democrats are generating that anger? No, that is too easy, lets blame Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh instead.

This Sullivan reader however is no fan of Coakley:

Let me suggest that if you view torture as an unacceptable human rights violation, you should be mortified by Coakley. The blurb you excerpt from Radley Balko's piece didn't address the most troubling case from Coakley's career---the Amirault case. Any prosecutor that would continue to press the Amirault case in light of what was known when Coakley took it over is a bigger threat to human rights than Scott Brown. And I would seriously question the commitment to human rights of anyone who didn't feel the same way.

If you're wondering how Coakley truly feels about the rights of terror suspects from across the globe, you might want to look at how she felt about the rights of the accused when it came to people living in her own county.

I agree with that. Coakley is a scary scary person willing to crush anyone to get ahead. Will Sullivan acknowledge it? Of course not, he has not even acknoweledged that Obama has for the most part followed most of George Bush's foriegn policies.

Andrew Sullivan sums up his views as such:

The Republican party right now is largely bonkers. The Democratic party is a lily-livered hackfest of mediocrity. I remain of the view that Obama is the best thing going for this country. But between the insanity on the right and incoherence on the left, he is marooned in a lonely center. Maybe in the long run, this is a better place to be. Right now it is making governance close to impossible, at a moment when we need all hands on deck.

I remain of the view that Obama is the best thing going for this country

I really do think something's wrong with Sullivan. Even if he's stubborn or infatuated enough to still feel this way, it's something a mindful person should be ashamed to express in public. Anyone who voted for Obama must think about "Hope and Change" with some degree of chagrin or sheepishness. It's so obviously a failure at best, a lie at worst.

The mailer could be related to the fact that internal Dem polling reportedly shows Coakley under-performing with less-affluent women.

Who as we know are the women who are routinely raped and turned away from emergency rooms. (Sarcasm in case you thought I was serious) So we should play upon their fears of being raped and somehow it is all Scott Brown's fault.

There is nothing too low or disgusting for the Democrats to do in order to try to keep POWER.

1. Know how the morning after pill works.2. The 72-hour effectiveness.3. That deciding whether or not to take one can be done in context of the patient and her physician discussing it long after ER treatment.4. That any Catholic, Muslim, or other with pro-life views working in an ER can do all the urgent ER treatment and give the woman a Planned Parenthood number or ask the ER follow-up "rape nurse examiner" to discuss the matter of getting a morning after pill.

Alex, thank you for proving my point. All ends justify the means. Go to any lengths to win. Smear, throw mud, lie, cheat, steal, and distort- as long as it is for the common good. The common good of getting a second rate political hack elected to preserve the Dem seat of a lying murdering drunken bum.

If I did this, I'd point out that the mailer is clearly lying, and I'd try to find the name of the exact person who produced it in order to try to get top search results for their name to the post where I called them a liar. And, secondarily, I'd take Sargent to task for going so easy on them. Instead, what Althouse did will not cause them to change their behavior. It might have some impact as some people who read this site send the plum line link to their friends who can realize it's misleading, but it won't have an impact on those who would be misled.

I realize Althouse isn't a full-timer, but maybe she could improve what she does in ways that don't take much time.

At what point does language like this become actual, actionable defamation? I'm aware of the constitutional hurdles when it comes to public figures, but this statement is so far from the truth as to laughable, were it not for the fact that some will beleive it. And you can't tell me that the writer didn't understand the difference between allowing doctors to refuse to provide certain treatments and hospitals actually turning away rape victims.

(Yes, I know that a defamation suit would be too late to help the present situation, but it might cause people to think about such misrepresentations in the future.)

For me, the funniest part of this whole campaign is picturing all of the "oh so intellectual" Democrats in Boston, Cambridge, Wellesley, Northampton, et al. pulling the lever for the imbecile political hack that is Coakley.

Yet another Maatha moment. This comedy of errors will be taught for generations on how not to run a campaign (assuming, of course, Barry, Barney, and all the other Ivy Leaguers in DC haven't set up the United Soviet Socialist States of America by then).

I know this is wishful thinking, but maybe some of those people who think that even though a place like MA has a lot of reprehensible hacks, it's OK because the machine means well will take a look at this harridan and her "career" and understand they need to think when they vote because they sure ain't been doing it the last half-century.

Theo Boehm - To reinforce what you said, in the annual poll by Senate staffers and regular Capital Hill employees - Arlen Spector was the most disliked Senator. John Kerry was a close second. 10 years running.Perversely, the most liked Senator by the worker's unofficial poll for 7 straight years was Teddy Kennedy. Followed by Orrin Hatch. Both were cited as extremely decent, considerable people with "the common touch".

Arlen was cited as a complete vicious asshole. Kerry for his constant self-centered, condescending arrogance, his deceit, lack of integrity in deals, and haughty snootiness. (curiously, that was the same set of traits that made Kerry the most hated guy in his prep school and Swift Boat Squadron - according to former classmates and peer officers).

To be a bit more precise (you liberals love to be "nuanced," remember), Brown voted in favor of an amendment which would have allowed hospital workers to exercise their freedom of conscience to not distribute drugs which would cause abortion or to perform medical procedures to cause an abortion, even in the aftermath of a rape. After the amendment lost, he nevertheless supported the bill as a whole, even though it contained the language which he considered offensive. Presumably this was because he thought passing the bill would do more good than harm even without the freedom of conscience provision.

Now, one can have a productive debate over whether the law should mandate that, if you want to practice medicine of any sort, you must check your religious scruples at the door and do all which the state mandates. There are reasonable arguments to be made, for and against. But that's got nothing to do with sympathy towards rape victims, willingness to help them, etc. The ad is one of the most reprehensible political ads I've ever seen.

I thought you guys wanted to raise the tone of the debate. Isn't that what candidate Obama said? Sheesh.

Hey Alex, since you are being such a bloody shrieking shrew about this, look up the Winfield case.

That will tell you exactly what Coakley reallllllly thinks about rape. It will tell you exactly what Coakley believes about baby rape. It will tell you exactly what Coakley believes about raping babies with hot curling irons.

She only believes in saying things that get people like you in a lather. She does not believe in doing things.

The risks to the White House are both immediate and long-term. A victory by Mr. Brown would mean losing the 60th vote Democrats need to stave off a filibuster in the Senate.

“If he’s running against 60 votes and wins, that is not good,” said Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska. “It says that in Massachusetts, they are willing to elect a guy who doesn’t believe in evolution just to keep the Democrats from having 60 votes.”

--How many times do they think the Palin trick is going to work where they just throw as many lies as they can at the Republican candidate to see how many stick? The Democrats are really beyond contempt at this point.

I should add, this is the same Democrat - Bob Kerrey - who was sent out by the Clinton campaign to take out Obama:

Kerrey continued: “It’s probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.”

-- So, it's not just Republicans who incur the unfair wrath of the Democratic party establishment, it's also fellow Democrats.

... Perversely, the most liked Senator by the worker's unofficial poll for 7 straight years was Teddy Kennedy. Followed by Orrin Hatch. Both were cited as extremely decent, considerable people with "the common touch".

Keep in mind that this survey came from Senatorial staffers based on who did or did not treat the staffs, including their own, like the dirt underneath their feet.

But, as you say, everybody liked Teddy - probably how he got so much bad legislation passed over the years.

Rialby said...

I should add, this is the same Democrat - Bob Kerrey - who was sent out by the Clinton campaign to take out Obama:

Kerrey continued: “It’s probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.”

Bobby Kerrey, in addition being something less than the sharpest knife in the drawer, was also one of the biggest phonies in American politics - another Kennedy wannabe.

His campaign announced this afternoon he is suing the Coakley campaign over the emergency care ad.

Dan Winslow, counsel for the Scott Brown for U.S. Senate campaign, will hold a media availability to announce the filing of a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democratic Party regarding a recent mailing paid for and sent by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Winslow will make a statement and take reporters’ questions at MassGOP Headquarters in Boston TODAY at 4:00 PM.

The text on the front page of the Coakley ad:

1736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008

Scott brown wants hospitals to turn them all away

Inside it includes the amendment he proposed. Below is the Washington Post desciption of the issue:

Brown is a state senator, and in 2005 he filed an amendment that would have allowed workers at religious hospitals or with firmly held religious beliefs to avoid giving emergency contraception to rape victims. The amendment failed, and Brown voted in favor of a bill allowing the contraception. He also voted to override a veto issued by his fellow Republican, then-Gov. Mitt Romney.

In addition Brown has also filed re the SEICU's use of state computers in Coakley's campaign.

It will also be interesting to see if UPS sues for Coakley's use of UPS in another new anti-Scott Brown ad. "What can Brown do to you?" with a brown UPS type truck in the background.

His campaign announced this afternoon he is suing the Coakley campaign over the emergency care ad."

I hope he wins. The statement in the ad is so obviously a lie that if it is possible to "lawyer" speak it into something defensible we should burn all court buildings in this nation the next day.

And I'm pretty much serious about that.

The people need to be able to trust the judicial system in this country and a lot of them don't. And one of the reasons they don't is the perception that lawyers are about getting away with stuff that we all know and see as wrong.

If the blatant lie that Brown wants to turn rape victims away from emergency rooms is let stand on any sort of technicality, we can just kiss justice goodbye, right on the ass.

On a more practical note... you liberal guys... do you really want people dumb enough not to recognize this lie to be your voter base? Because I would really hope that at least some Democrats would look at this and be so ashamed that they chose to actually vote *for* Brown in the interest of their own personal integrity.

Funny that (actually not) the people who think they know how to run health care better than anybody still haven't figured out that there is a lot that happens in the ER for rape victims besides handing out prescriptions for morning after pills.

In an astonishing example of hypocrisy, Martha Coakley and her Democrat allies have spent millions of dollars over the last week attacking Scott Brown on a policy position that she has pledged to fully support.

With her promise to be the 60th vote for President Obama's health care legislation, Martha Coakley has given her approval to a conscience clause that would protect religious workers in the healthcare field from engaging in practices that conflict with their faith.

According to the Boston Globe, "The 2005 amendment that Brown sponsored in the state Senate would have allowed a physician, nurse, or any other employee to deny rape victims an emergency contraceptive if it 'conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief.' The facility would have had to have someone else who could administer the contraceptive or refer the victim to another facility at no additional cost to the patient. The amendment, which did not pass, was attached to a bill that he ultimately voted for, which required emergency rooms to provide the contraceptives to rape victims." (Viser, Boston Globe, 1/13/10)

While Martha Coakley spent the last 7 days criticizing Scott Brown on the conscience clause, she has committed to Democrat leaders in Washington that she will be the reliable 60th vote for a measure that also contains a conscience clause.

Obama's Government-Run Health Care Experiment Includes A Conscience Clause. "PROVIDER CONSCIENCE PROTECTIONS.-No individual health care provider or health care facility may be discriminated against because of an willingness or an unwillingness, if doing so is contrary to the religious or moral beliefs of the provider or facility, to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions." (Sec. 1303(a), H.R. 3590, Amendment In The Nature Of A Substitute, "Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act," Introduced 11/18/09)

Martha Coakley's hypocrisy heightens as she attacks Scott Brown for having the same position as Ted Kennedy on conscience protections.

In A Letter To The Pope, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) Said "I Believe In A Conscience Protection For Catholics." "I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and I'll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone." (William Kristol, "Will Obama Repudiate Smear Campaign?" The Weekly Standard, 1/16/10)

Beth Lindstrom, Scott Brown's campaign manager, said, "By spending the closing days of this campaign hypocritically attacking Scott Brown for a position she herself has endorsed, Martha Coakley has left no doubt that principles take a back seat to political expediency. Martha's unfair and negative attacks represent the old way of doing politics, but these gutter tactics won't work when Massachusetts voters go to the polls on Tuesday."